Act 26: Watery Grave
by The Admiral
Summary: Under the sea....another long one, sorry it took so long! Note to Readers: I'm probably not going to start the next one until i get a few reviews, so send 'em in!
1. Default Chapter

I'm starting to get sick of saying this, but....  
  
I don't own Big O  
  
I don't own the characters  
  
I am not making money  
  
Lawyers, begone!  
  
  
  
  
Act 26: Watery Grave  
  
  
  
Roger and Jazmin were arguing over some fine point or other of Megadeuce design when Angel entered the room. Dorothy leaned against the wall, a look of curiosity and amusement adorning her face. Norman, taking a day off from research and maintenance, and Malcom, Jazmin's mute mechanic, sat in a pair of recliners, occasionally laughing at one of their friend's arguments. Roger looked up to see Angel in the doorway, and his smile faltered. He downed the last of his martini in one swift gulp, placed his glass on the table, and leaned back on the couch, hands behind his head.  
  
"So, Miss Angel, come to join us in our discussion? I'm sure Jazmin here could find something about Big Duo that needs improving." Jazmin shot him a death glare.  
  
Angel smiled. "No, actually, I'm afraid I can't. Roger, can I speak with you for a moment?"  
  
The Negotiator raised an eyebrow and rose to follow her. The rest of the room's occupants exchanged looks.  
  
"Alright, Angel, what is it. What'd I do this time?" He put his hands in his pockets and braced for another recitation of the Angelic codes.  
  
"It's not something you did, Roger. Rosewater has sent a ship out into the ocean. It's not far from shore, but David and I agree that it's probably looking for something." She turned to the window. "What, we don't know, but it's something deep on the sea floor." Angel turned back to him. "They're using those same suits from our little adventure in the bay."  
  
Roger frowned. "Oh, you mean the Sea Titan incedent, right? Do you think they're trying to dig up another Megadeuce?"  
  
"Well, we still don't know where that one that attacked Jazmin came from. There wasn't much we could discern from the wreckage, seeing as how both missiles detonated when it crashed."  
  
Roger didn't bat an eyebrow. "Oops."  
  
Angel glared at him. "We're sending out our own ship to see what Paradigm's up to. If it poses no threat, we'll let them have their fun. But if it does..." She let the threat hang in the air.  
  
"I see. And I take it you want me to go along for the ride?"  
  
"I had something like that in mind, yes. Remember, Roger, both you and Dorothy can operate faultlessly in even very deep water. And we don't happen to have any diving suits of our own, so..."  
  
"I'm not sure I like where this is headed, Angel."  
  
She gave him a feral grin. 


	2. Part Two

I'm starting to get sick of saying this, but....  
  
I don't own Big O  
  
I don't own the characters  
  
I am not making money  
  
Lawyers, begone!  
  
  
  
  
Roger had never thought that androids could get seasick. Then again, he had never thought them capable of love, emotion, taste, and all the other varieties of things he had found them to be quite adept at.  
  
Seasickness was, lamentably, one of those things.  
  
Dorothy could have sworn Roger was slightly green as he leaned over the railing. "Roger, I don't see what's so bad about sailing." She leaned back against the rail, spreading her arms. "I actually like the fresh air. The sounds of the sea. Wave after wave, gently bobbing the boat back and forth, back and forth, back and forth..."  
  
Roger groaned and leaned further over the railing. Dorothy just smirked and rolled her eyes.  
  
"Ship off the starboard!"  
  
Roger sprang to his feet, any trace of seasickness gone in an instant. He looked around energetically across the waves. "Where is it? I don't see it!"  
  
Dorothy gently pulled his arm and turned him around. "It's over this way. Starboard is the *right* side of the ship."  
  
"Oh...I knew that." Dorothy just gave him a look. "I knew that! Really, I did! Dorothy!"  
  
  
The Paradigm vessel was a dirty grey, partially covered in grime. It was a seaworthy ship, though, and was holding its own against the waves. The angels brought their ship to a stop not far away.  
  
Roger studied the other boat through binoculars. Dorothy achieved the same effect by utilizing the zoom lenses in her eyes, which Roger hadn't quite gotten the trick of yet.  
  
"Looks like they're setting up some sort of equipment...I can't quite make it out..." He adjusted the binoculars slightly. "If that one brute would just move a little...there! I knew it!" Roger put the binoculars down. "It's a submersible, just like the one Readerman built!" He looked through the binoculars again. "Wait a moment...that is the one Readerman built! I even reckognize the damage from our little underwater joyride!"  
  
"Roger, I think they have noticed us." Dorothy pointed further up the ship's length. "Those two men are pointing and shouting."  
  
Roger looked at the two she had identified. "You're right. Now they're pulling something up...GET DOWN!!" He grabbed Dorothy and dragged her to the deck just as bullets from the gatling gun the men had been handling sprayed the ship's side. Roger crawled forward, but Dorothy stayed put for a moment. A bullet richocheting off the deck just in front of her nose changed her mind.  
  
The angels got one of their own weapons unveiled and began to return fire. The two boats came alongside, firing at point-blank into each others' flanks. Roger crawled up the deck to a door, reached up to swing it open, and held it long enough for Dorothy to make it inside.  
  
  
The angels broke off their attack in lieu of a rapidly approaching storm. The dark, ominous thunderheads rushed out towards the ship at an alarming speed. Roger didn't like the looks of them one bit. "Will we make it back to shore in time?"  
  
The captain of the ship turned. "We can't be sure. The wind is towards our side, hindering us. We could turn into it, which would give us a better chance of riding out the storm, or we could turn with it, which would carry us ahead of the storm until it died down."  
  
Dorothy frowned. "But there is no way we could know how long the storm would drive us before it."  
  
"Aye." The captain studied the charts for a moment. "I'm turning into the storm. There's no better way to make it through, and we're not far from shore."  
  
"You're the captain." Roger again looked out at the thunderheads, with a feeling deep inside him that something terrible would happen.  
  
  
He was right. A mere twenty minutes later, the ship was in amongst thirty-foot waves and rapidly taking on water. The captain gave the call to abandon ship. All along its length, angels came up on deck and took to the air, soaring away towards shore. Roger and Dorothy struggled with the one and only life-raft, trying to get it into the water. They looked up just in time to see a huge wave sweep them off the ship and into the sea.  
  
Given that they both were made of near-solid metal, the two of them sunk very fast. The grasped each other's hand the whole way down, until their feet sank up to their knees in the mud. All was dark.  
  
Then Dorothy turned on the lamp in her hairband, and saw Roger's face hovering before her. His lips moved, but no sound reached her ears. They gestured wildly for a moment, trying to communicate, but to no avail. While they could operate efficiently underwater, the speaker and hearing systems apparently couldn't.  
  
Still clutching hands, they began to walk steadily towards what they thought was shore, but was in reality a line straight towards the deepest sea. 


	3. Part Three

I'm starting to get sick of saying this, but....  
  
I don't own Big O  
  
I don't own the characters  
  
I am not making money  
  
Lawyers, begone!  
  
  
  
  
"What do you mean, they vanished? Somebody should've stayed to make sure they got the raft out in time!"  
  
"I know, but the ship was going down fast, and we couldn't--"  
  
"Forget it. The past is the past. This is now. We'll need another ship, and equipment capable of finding two androids on the bottom of the ocean..."  
  
Angel spread a chart of the nearby sea on the table. "Can you show me about where the ship sunk? If this rescue is going to have any luck, we need a general area to start in."  
  
Norman stepped into the room. "If you'll excuse me, Miss Angel, but are you sure a rescue is really neccessary?"  
  
Angel looked at him in undisguised astonishment. "You mean you think they made it onto the raft?"  
  
The one-eyed man shook his head. "No, I understand that they are most likely on the bottom of the sea. But do they really need rescuing?" Angel still looked confused, so Norman elaborated. "Master Roger could easily call Big O, and they could ride him back to shore or simply teleport back here. Even if Big O cannot make it there, for some reason, they could just walk along the floor of the ocean towards shore. There is really no reason to assume that they need or want to be rescued."  
  
Angel pursed her lips. "Regardless, we're heading out there. If they DO need help, I'm going to be there to offer it."  
  
  
It had been several hours since their landing on the bottom of the ocean floor. Roger and Dorothy strode on, tirelessly, farther and farther from shore. Every now and then, some curious sea creature would come close to the light from Dorothy's headband, but they would quickly vanish. The ocean floor stretched before them, an endless plain of greyish mud.  
  
With each footstep, the murk threatened to immobilize them, but the strength of their pneumatic legs could easily pull them free. Their shoes had been sucked of long ago, but they had barely noticed. Beneath the mud, the ground was fairly smooth.  
  
Roger noticed a shape coming into sight at the edge of their tiny pool of light. More than a shape; a wall of steel rose into the darkness above. They walked right up to it, and Roger rapped his knuckle on its side. They, of course, heard nothing, since their speach and hearing systems were damaged by the salt water. Dorothy looked from side to side. Metal extended like the face of a cliff in both directions.  
  
Roger, however, had spotted something farther down when Dorothy had moved the light. He pointed, and they headed for the vauge shadow.  
  
It was a chain, hanging from some point far above. The last link, broken, lay half-buried in the mud. Each link was the size of Roger's forearm. They stood looking up its length for a moment, then Dorothy reached up and began to climb. Roger, not wanting to be left in the dark, followed.  
  
It was when they passed the faded lettering that Roger realized they were climbing the anchor chain of a sunken ship. The name itself was unreadable, but the sight of the lettering triggered the thought deep inside Roger.  
  
Moments later, his theory was confirmed as they climbed up onto the foredeck, where several cargo cranes lay sprawled across the planking. Dorothy stepped carefully between them, Roger following in her wake. Suddenly, a plank disentigrated beneath her foot, and it was only Roger's quick thinking that stopped her from plummeting belowdecks. He pulled her back, and they shared a look.  
  
Shortly afterward, they climbed down the anchor chain on the opposite side and continued walking, oblivious to the slight, but steady downward slope. 


	4. Part Four

I'm starting to get sick of saying this, but....  
  
I don't own Big O  
  
I don't own the characters  
  
I am not making money  
  
Lawyers, begone!  
  
  
  
  
Angel had never really liked the sea. Her little jaunt with Roger amongst the sunken buildings of Paradigm City's bay had done more to fuel her dislike. This most recent incident was the last straw.  
  
She was cold, tired, hungry, and very wet. The latter was especially infuriating, for it rendered her 30-foot white-feathered wings all but useless, as thouroughly soaked as they were.  
  
The storm that had sunk the first ship had mostly moved on, leaving only some slighlty rough waves and large quantaties of rain in its wake. The rescue ship had found the spot where the first vessel had gone down, but was unable to hold position. It had moved off to a less-turbulent area of water, waiting.  
  
Lures of hot chocolate drew Angel back inside, to relative warmpth. She found the mug and took a dep draught, feeling the heat flow throughout her. Norman was looking at a chart of the sea floor near where Roger and Dorothy had vanished beneath the waves.  
  
"Miss Angel, I believe we may have a serious problem."  
  
She groaned. "Another one? What is it this time?"  
  
Norman gestured at the chart. "As you can see here, the sea floor directly beneath us is fairly flat, and extends all the way back to shore. Further out, however..." Since it was a topographical map, he pointed to a large cluster of lines close together. "You can see that there is a very steep descent less then a few miles away. It drops down to a lower portion of the floor, and at that depth Roger and Dorothy's support frames would begin to feel stress. Not farther on, they would be crushed by the pressure."  
  
"So? Wouldn't they be heading towards shore?"  
  
"Logically, yes. But they have no way of knowing in which direction the shore is."  
  
Angel studied the map for a moment. "So they could be walking straight towards that cliff, and not even know it?"  
  
"Normally, Dorothy's internal balance system would detect the incline, but it may be thrown off by her slight buonacy in water and the large current that runs through the area."  
  
"That does it. Get the search equipment up! We've got to find those androids!"  
  
  
Roger and Dorothy had, in fact, come right up to the sub-aquatic cliff, and were looking over the side. Roger stared long and hard into the darkness, then turned and looked back the way they had came. He motioned to Dorothy, who gave him a resigned look and nodded. They turned around and began to walk back.  
  
Suddenly, the ground beneath them shifted. Both of them froze in their tracks. Dorothy turned her light behind them just in time to see a patch of mud go sliding down the cliff. The weren't on the cliff edge itself, just a mud overhang. An overhang that their weight might send crashing to the bottom.  
  
Roger and Dorothy locked gazes, then began running as fast as they could underwater. Their movement disturbed even more mud, and the ground behind them began falling away rapidly.  
  
In the utter blackness, at the foot of the mile-high cliff they had peered over, the mud struck not sea floor and more mud, but armored spines. A true sea titan moved slightly in its sleep, but when more and more mud came tumbling down to land on its back, the creature began to rise. Huge eyes, each at least as big as the Gryhpon, glowed with an eerie green light. The beast kicked off with powerful legs, rising to the top of the cliff.  
  
Roger and Dorothy suddenly saw their own shadows laid on the ground before them. They stopped, and slowly turned. A huge monster, with giant black claws and phosphorescent eyes, loomed over them. Seeing potential prey, it started forward.  
  
Roger's hand went instinctively to his wristwatch. 


	5. Part Five

I'm starting to get sick of saying this, but....  
  
I don't own Big O  
  
I don't own the characters  
  
I am not making money  
  
Lawyers, begone!  
  
  
  
  
Big O burst from beneath them in a flurry of mud and water. The aquatic monstrosity, taken off guard, drew back at the sight of the newcomer. Puzzled, it began circling the Megadeuce.  
  
Roger and Dorothy clamberd into the hatch and quickly made their way to the cockpit. Mud clung to their legs, and their clothes were completely soaked. Neither of them really noticed. Roger leapt into the control chair, trying to call out his corny battlecries, but no sound issued from his mouth. Dorothy's shoulders shook, and it was a moment before he realized she was silently laughing. He shook his head and gripped the controls.  
  
They got their first good look at their attacker. It had four legs and four arms, two of which sported huge claws. Several antennae sprouted from the head, and the back was covered in spiked armor.  
  
The sea creature, over its initial puzzlement, moved in close to Big O, perhaps thinking it was food. Roger dissuaded it from that though with a well-struck blow. It lurched backwards, stunned, then rose up on all four legs to strike with huge claws. Each grabbed one of the Megaceuce's arms, pinning them. Roger instead fired the eye lasers, lighting up the underwater landscape for miles around. The blast struck hard armor plating on the monster's backside, merely shaking it free.  
  
On the surface, Norman and Angel noticed the bright flare of light from underwater. "There! Over there! Take us in that direction!"  
  
Norman realized it was Big O fighting something else, and doubted the wisdom of moving close, but kept his mouth shut.  
  
The sea creature was now crouching under its shell, while Big O rained down blows upon the chitinous armor. Roger brought back one arm and raised the pile-driver, but before he could strike one claw reached out, grabbed the Megadeuce's leg, and pulled, throwing Big O off balance and tumbling backwards. The creature leapt high above the robot, intent on bringing claws down from above. Roger brought the legs up and they connected with the monster's face with a satysfiying CRUNCH. The creature, wounded, stumbled back a few paces, then struck again. Big O blocked the claws with its forearm plating.  
  
"Where'd they go? I don't see them anymore!" Angel was looking furtivley over the side. Norman tried to call out to her, but the wind snatched his words away. Then, the sea all around them glowed white, and a huge shape broke the surface. Angel was thrown back as a wave washed over the ship.  
  
The sea creature, riding the Chrome Buster's beam, flew OUT of the water, smoking. It arced up for a moment, then the beam cut out. The corpse fell into the water, a charred mass of flesh and exoskeleton. Big O's helmet began to surface as the Megadeuce walked uphill on the sea floor.  
  
  
Roger almost thought he had been halluciniating. In the bright light from the Chrome Buster's blast, he had been able to see out over the cliff and down to the lower floor. For the briefest of moments, he thought he had seen a city, underwater, preserved. It had vanished when the beam died down, leaving only an afterimage against his memory circuits. He and Dorothy again shared a look, since they couldn't talk. Then Roger spotted the 'rescue' ship bobbing on the waves not far away.  
  
He moved over and picked the boat up in Big O's hand, then began walking back to shore, the image of a sunken city flashing again and again through his head...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Sorry I took so long getting the rest of the chapters up. The 'rents dragged me off to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the weekend. I posted the first just before we left, and *would* have posted the rest, but Fanfic.net was being stubborn, so they had to wait. Hope you liked this one! 


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